When John Blessing dies and leaves behind two small children, the loss reverberates across his extended family for years to come. His young widow, Lauren, finds solace in her large clan of in-laws, while his brother's wife Kate pursues motherhood even at the expense of her marriage. Through departures and arrivals, weddings and reunions, THE BLESSINGS reveals the interior worlds of the members of a close-knit Irish-Catholic family and the rituals that unite them.

At the center of Elizabeth McCracken's stories is often a jagged space left by loss: a neighborhood is haunted by a child's ghost, a library staff grapples with the mystery of a patron's death, a corner store manager obsesses over a missing woman, a son absconds forever with his parents' savings. But equally present in this new story collection --- McCracken's first in 20 years --- are passion, charm, humor and joy.

Allie Crawford has the life she always dreamed of. But when she finds her husband locked in their laundry room with a stunning blonde, a scandal ensues that flips her life on its head. And when the woman wants to befriend Allie, an old flame calls, and a new guy gets a little too close for comfort, she starts to think her marriage is more of a facade than something real. Maybe she's fallen in love not with Wade, but with the idea of him.

At the age of 35, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne has left her philandering husband in San Francisco to set sail for Belgium --- with her three children and nanny in tow --- to study art. Not long after her arrival, tragedy strikes, and Fanny and her children repair to a quiet artists’ colony in France where she can recuperate. Emerging from a deep sorrow, she meets Robert Louis Stevenson, and the two begin a fierce love affair that spans the decades and the globe.

After three acclaimed novels, Gary Shteyngart turns to memoir in a candid, witty and deeply poignant account of his life so far. Swinging between a Soviet home life and American aspirations, Shteyngart found himself living in two contradictory worlds, all the while wishing that he could find a real home in one. And somebody to love him. And somebody to lend him 69 cents for a McDonald’s hamburger.

THE ALL-GIRL FILLING STATION'S LAST REUNION is a fun-loving mystery about an Alabama woman today and five women who worked in a Phillips 66 gas station during the World War II years. The one and only Fannie Flagg, the beloved author of FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLE STOP CAFE, is at her hilarious and superb best here.

WRITERS BETWEEN THE COVERS rips the sheets off real-life love stories of the literati --- some with fairy tale endings and others that resulted in break-ups, breakdowns and brawls. From the best break-up letters to the stormiest love triangles to the boldest cougars and cradle-robbers, this fun and accessible volume reveals literary history’s most titillating loves, lusts and longings.

Sylvie Mason’s parents have an unusual occupation --- helping “haunted souls” find peace. After receiving a strange phone call one winter’s night, they leave the house and are later murdered in an old church in a horrifying act of violence. A year later, the inquisitive teenager pursues the mystery, moving closer to the knowledge of what occurred that night --- and to the truth about her family’s past and the secrets that have haunted them for years.

When prestigious plantation owner Cornelius Allen gives his daughter Clarissa’s hand in marriage, she takes with her a gift: Sarah --- her slave and her half-sister. Raised by an educated mother, Clarissa is not the proper southern belle she appears to be with ambitions of loving who she chooses, and Sarah equally hides behind the façade of being a docile house slave as she plots to escape.

Jerene Jarvis Johnston and her husband, Duke, are exemplars of Charlotte, North Carolina’s high society, where old Southern money --- and older Southern secrets --- meet the new wealth of bankers, boom-era speculators, and carpetbagging social climbers. Jerene must prove tireless in preserving the family's legacy, Duke’s fragile honor, and what's left of the dwindling family fortune. But is it too much to ask for one ounce of cooperation from her heedless family?